Politics, said Henry Adams, “has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” In recent months, best-seller lists have helped to prove Adams’ point, by featuring many vituperative political tracts from the left and right.

For some time now, American law and lawyers have had a legitimacy problem. Most Americans must wonder how it is that unelected federal judges have the power to declare that no state government can punish consensual homosexual relations, prohibit...

Englishness may be coming back into fashion. After the union of the English and Scottish crowns and the foundation of modern Britain in 1603, the idea of Englishness was increasingly submerged in, and confused with, the idea of Britishness.

As Heraclitus concluded so has Andre Dubus III: Character is fate. By way of illustration, in 1999, Dubus gave us his hypnotic novel House of Sand and Fog, the story of three very different characters weaving together their individual...